Ireland grand-slam bid fails to unite nation

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For older generations, the prospect of victory in Cardiff today will do little to stir the sporting soul

If you are Irish and you like rugby, you will be loving this entire grand-slam business. The old boys of 1948 getting dusted down and wheeled out. The big claims for rugby’s centrality to Irish culture. The sense that a grand slam may be one last, grand blowout before the country throws itself down the economic garbage chute.

If you are Irish and indifferent to the rugger hullabaloo, well, you won’t be short of company, either.

This has been an interesting month for Irish sport. For a few days at Cheltenham we masqueraded as “the racing Irish”, a loveable, all-drinking,